ZTE Agreement Pending

Reuters is saying today that there is a deal afoot to get ZTE back into the trading game again, after being sanctioned by the US for violating the terms of an agreement to reinstate them during the Obama Administration.  They get a big fine and a “never do that again” slap.

Maybe we have forgotten some of what ZTE was doing.

First, they were buying. U.S. computers from U.S. companies and sending them to Iran to help their nuclear program (and a lot more), in violation of UN sanctions that China voted for.  

Second, they were selling other things to other countries with sanctions - places like Cuba, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria through front companies set up just to do that.  It was clear they knew what they were doing, and how to do it.  China’s government knew they were doing it.  Now, all of a sudden, China says they are sorry they got caught, and we could do something to help them in the furtherance of good trade relations.   How ridiculous is that?

Third, there was another company doing the same thing, but that company was never named by the Obama Administration.  There was speculation at the time that it might be Huawei.  Why weren’t they named and sanctioned along with ZTE?

The real national security issue is that China votes for sanctions in the UN, then gets its own companies to violate them before the ink is dry on the agreement.  We can’t trust them to keep their word on anything they agree to, which makes “trade negotiations” a lot more difficult.